Senior MBPJ officials own low-cost flats
by R. Nadeswaran, Terence Fernandez and Llew-Ann Phang

PETALING JAYA (May 20, 2010): SHE is chauffeur-driven in an official four-wheel drive on duties and states her address in official documents as a double-storey corner terrace house in Kota Damansara. But Sharipah Marhaini Syed Ali is also the owner of the low-cost apartment in Ara Damansara and happens to be the planning director of the Petaling Jaya City Council (MBPJ).

She is not the only senior official owning a low-cost apartment.

MBPJ’s senior assistant engineer, Hanizah Katab, owns one in the same block – and so does about 500 other MBPJ employees, many using the names of wives, husbands and relatives to own low-cost homes in Petaling Jaya.

By her own admission, Sharipah is not the only director who owns a low-cost flat. Questioned by a councillor, she charged that there are other "directors and deputy directors" who own such properties.

In a reply to a memo from Deputy Mayor Puasa Md Taib dated Feb 4, Sharipah argued that "if the policy is that those earning above RM2,500 are not eligible, then all the other officers involved should be asked to explain".

Going by the state government’s guidelines on eligibility for low-cost units, they would not qualify by a mile because only those having combined family income of less than RM2,500 a month can apply.

However, according to Sharipah, there was a policy introduced in 2001, when the council took over squatter eradication efforts from the state, to allocate low-cost units to council staff.

This decision, however, was in contravention of the state’s policy, which restricted the sale of low-cost units to those with a household income of not more than RM2,500.

Executive councillor in charge of poverty eradication Dr Xavier Jeyakumar said the policy still stands. "The state government’s policy on first-time ownership of low-cost units has not changed, and any exemption by the housing department must be sanctioned by the Exco," he said.

However, documents made available to theSun revealed how the RM2,500 criteria could be circumvented (see also page 8).

Most, if not all, the low-cost units are not owner-occupied. Instead, they are an extra source of income because they can fetch rentals of up to RM500 a month.

Sharipah’s monthly bank loan repayment is RM322. Her apartment has been unoccupied for two months. According to neighbours, the Indonesian construction workers who were renting it had left for Kuantan after finishing a development project nearby.

Hanizah is collecting RM400 a month from an Indian family of six.

However, a search at MBPJ’s Valuation Department showed that in her application for the low-cost flat, Sharipah gave her address as a double-storey corner house on Jalan Nuri, Section 7 Kota Damansara, estimated at about RM450,000. Hanizah gave an address in Nilai.

The issue of MBPJ staff owning low-cost flats was first raised by councillor K.W. Mak in February when he asked the State Select Committee for Competency, Accountability and Transparency (Selcat) to investigate the non-compliance and malpractices in the sale of such apartments to non-eligible applicants.

In a statement last week, Mak said he had written to Mayor Datuk Roslan Sakiman on April 29 to also conduct investigations.

Mak raised the issues after receiving complaints from former squatters who were promised low-cost units but never received offers once the construction of the low-cost flat was completed.

"These former squatters have shown me proof that they were interviewed and given alternative accommodation prior to waiting for the demolition of their village to make way for development and subsequent relocation to the completed flat in their former locale," he said.

Last week, two residents who had complained to Mak turned to theSun claiming that MBPJ officers had taken away apartments meant for them.

Mak said he has yet to see documents supporting the so-called policy to open up low-cost units to council staff.

In a statement today, MBPJ said developers offered excess units in eight low-cost housing schemes, on private lands, to its management team from year 2000.

sos cili tak best

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because of some @ssholes like these in the government, some poor chaps have to rely on ah long for their rental payment...

good job to thesun for have the guts to spills out the name of the b@stards...

pagi-pagi dah bace story yg buat gua marah...sialan lu sharipah marhaini..i hope karma will gets you back, you greedy b****!

in b4 first/slowpoke

it's rich ppl's "investment"...
Poor remains poor...rich will get richer..
this is the government's ways of creating millionaires...

capitalism wins

so rich also doing this?

now only know...?

by all means, ALL MUST explain

the only mistake she made is : GET CAUGHT

I have talked to several of these people

interestingly malay seem to like cheap house but expensive car, their reason is car can show off cause can drive around, house cant

while the chinese will like expensive house but cheap car, their reason is end of the day you will still end in house not car

anyway, we should have more low cost flat and house and such. everyone have right on where they want to live and what they want to do with their money. there is still many squatter area in kl and selangor, we should tear down all these squattter area and replace it with low cost flat

sharipah exposed!!!

Most of the chinese are money minded ... their reason in d end of the day is houses gain more value while car once u buy the value depreciate already. House and land no ... unless leasthold ...

Well, gov shud also use their brain to think bout those low cost, low earning people... I wonder what comes in their mind first from the gov! Money or People?!

agreed... for me... i think i will choose house over car cuz Malaysian road is not safe and no reason to show off my buying power... attract robbers only...

Actually all this is very common........

My fren's brother is a project manager with a developer earning abt rm8k pm and he bought a low cost unit near TAR college a few years back. Put under wife's name.
Paid RM45k plus rm5k undercounter to the ppl in charge of low cost housing( dunno what the majlis located in KL)
Now he getting rm650pm rental and can sell for rm100k. Apparently all his colleage also buy 1 unit and paid rm5k to that majlis insider ppl.

Its operating in all levels.... the majlis, dbkl, the developers etc
I think low cost housing in good prime location only abt 20% goes to the ppl that really need it.



This post has been edited by eucalyptol: May 21 2010, 08:48 AM

wow ur bro friend got a gem there

i thought this was like an open secret in malaysia? heck i read such stories in articles all over the papers and magazines waaaay back 10 years ago

now you guys rage? slow poke man

tl;dr

its very normal for these to happen. if you happen to work for the approving department in the government or the developer of a certain project and they ask if you wanted a unit, sure most people will jump in on the opportunity as the gross return % is very high from an investment point of view. in fact a savvy investor may want to get more than just a unit.....

house shouldnt be so expensive in the first place!
Its a necessity, they are robbing our life!

great investment plan though the only downfall is that she got caught doing it . In the end the buyer get the house for free lol

might be open secret, but finally people are starting to do something about it. Even if the end result is for swaying voters.

i kind of get the feeling that after a few months of hoo haa the officers are going to be let of with nothing being done and the issue will be swept under the carpet. well, they signed the spa and the developer agreed to sell it to them in the first place.